1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a composition comprising an extract of hardy kiwi having preventing, improving or treating activity of baldness disorder or seborrheic skin disease.
2. Background Art
The present invention relates to a composition comprising the extract of hardy kiwi having ability of preventing and treating on baldness disease or seborrheic skin disease, and especially, a composition comprising a crude extract, non-polar solvent soluble extract, or purified fraction of hardy kiwi extract for the prevention or treatment of baldness disease or seborrheic skin disease.
Baldness syndrome is frequently occurred in middle-aged male and classified into two types of baldness. One is male pattern baldness alternatively named as an alopecia seniles or androgenic alopecia generally occurred in the forehead or calvaria of middle-aged male, and another is alopecia areata which shows relatively concrete border line of alopecia and frequently being occurred in juvenile person. The syndrome is mainly occurred in male and even in female (M. Inaba et al; Androgenetic alopecia, Springer-Berlag, Tokyo, Japan, 1996).
There has been reported that alopecia is originated from genetic factor, the progress of aging, drug abuse, radioactive treatment and the stress occurred after serious illness etc. It has been known that main factors of alopecia are over-production of androgenic hormone, blood circulation problem in scalp, and deficiency of essential vitamins to hair metabolism in biochemical and physiological aspects. The main factor of male pattern baldness relates to androgen and steroid hormones, in particular, 5-α-reductase which is converting testosterone to 5-α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and which is distributed in sebaceous gland, keratinocytes of hair follicle, dermal papilla cell, sweat gland, root sheath of the scalp hair follicle and aromatase which is converting androgen to female hormone such as estradiol. The etiological origin of alopecia greata is known to be the disorder of autoimmune system, especially the lymphocyte CD4+ disorder in melanocyte, keratinocyte, dermal papilla and vascular endothelium (J. Shapiro et al; Therapeutic agents, Dermatol. Clin., 16(2) pp 341-356, 1998).
Various conventional drugs for the treatment of alopecia have been developed till now. Finasteride, an oral 5-α-reductase inhibitor, is available in the market, however it has several disadvantages such as recurrence at cease of administration, usage limitation in pregnant women, and sexual dysfunction upon long-term administration; minoxidil has been used to treat male pattern baldness combined with other agents such as cell division accelerator, vasodilator, capillary formation promotor, immuno-suppressor, cAMP modulator, EGF(epithelial cell growth factor), and cell proliferation modulator. However it also has adverse effects such as repetitive recurrence and rapid reduction of blood pressure at cease of administration too. ACTH (adrenocorticotrophin) an immuno-modulating agent acting on limphocyte to suppress hyperactive immune system has been administrated to treat alopecia greata in forms of ointment or in injection formulations. However it also has several disadvantages including recurrence and adverse effects upon long term administration. Besides the described drugs, cyproterone actate, spironolactone or estrogen have been reported to treat alopecia (J. Shapiro et al, Hair regrowth, Therapeutic agents, Dermatol. Clin. 16(2), pp 341-356, 1998)
Most of them do not provide enough efficacy to accomplish a satisfactory activity and have several disadvantages including recurrence and adverse effects. Therefore there have been demands for a new drug which provides with satisfactory effect and reduced adverse effect till now.
Meanwhile, there have been various approaches to develop an effective drug from natural resources to treat and to prevent alopecia.
As an alternative approach, there have been several reports on a composition comprising an extract of natural product having hair growth stimulating effect, for example, 1) an extract belonged to Orchidaceae disclosed in Korea Patent Registration No. 015667; 2) vitex seed and bear fat in Korea Patent Registration No. 0161338; 3) an extract of Rhododendron fauriae in Korea Patent Publication No. 91-106; 4) pine leaf extract in Korea Patent Publication No. 96-40346; 5) a crude extract of torilla seed, pine leaf and silkworm moth in Korea Patent Publication No. 90-2757; 6) a crude extract of Acanthopanax sessiliflorus, Astragalus membranceus, Polygonum multiflorum, Dioscorea nipponica and Fagopyrum esculentum in Korea Patent Publication No. 2000-24499; 7) a crude extract of Pinellia ternata, Eugenia Caryophyllata, Rubus coreanus, Zanthoxylum piperatum, Vitex rotundifolia, Salvia miltiorrhiza, and Thujae semen in Korea Patent Registration No. 259037; 8) the fat obtained by heating silkworm and their byproduct, at 200° C. for 15 mins, an extract of one or more of Panax ginseng, Angelica sinensis, Astragalus membranceus, Polygonum multiflorum, Juglans sinensis, Rubus coreanus, Rehmannia glustinosa, Psoralea corylifolia, Pinus densiflora, Vitex rotundifolia, Carthamus tinctorius and Ligustrum lucidum in Korea Patent Publication No. 90-13934; 9) an extract of one or more of silkworm moth, silkworm eggs, silkworm pupa, black sesame seeds, sesame seeds, brown seaweed, and walnuts in Korea Patent Publication No. 90-5952; 10) mixed powder of mung beans, soy bean, perilla seeds, sesame seeds, walnuts, layer, sea mussel, oyster, anchovy, brown seaweed, and yeast concentrates in Korea Patent Registration No. 260673; and 11) an extract of fruits, root, branch, leaf, flowers of Lycium chinensis, and corn silk in Korea Patent Publication No. 2000-36534. However, the hair growing effect of the above described composition disclosed therein have not been fully supported or identified in any of the disclosure.
More than 30 species belonged to Actinidiaceae have been reported. Actinidia arguta, A. polygama and A. kolomikta belonged to Actinidiaceae, are distributed in Siberia, the northern area of China, North and South Korea. Actinidia arguta, A. polygama and A. kolomikta have been used as materials of traditional oriental medicine named as ‘mihudo’, to treat liver disease, gastrointestinal disease and urogenital lithiasis without toxicity (Chung B. S, and Shin M. K.; HyangyakDaesacheon, Youngrimsa., pp 386-388, 1998).
Meanwhile, there have been several applications regarding the activity of Actinidia fruit to treat or prevent various medicinal diseases till now.
For example, Korea Patent Publication No. 2002-78467 discloses health beverage containing an extract of crude drugs consisting of Actinidia arguta, Hovenia dulcis, Lycium chinensis, Schizandra chinensis, Artemis capillaries, Pueraria thunbergiana, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Lagenaria siceraria, Aralia elata, Polygala tenuifolia, Angelica sinensis, Atractylodes macrocephala, Gardenia jasminoides, Astragalus membranaceus, Carthamus tinctorius and Cordyceps militaris for the improvement of liver function.
However, there has been not reported or disclosed an activity of an extract of hardy kiwi for treating or preventing alopecia and seborrheic skin disease in any of above literatures.
To investigate the treating or preventing effect of hardy kiwi extract on alopecia and seborrheic skin disease, the inventors of the invention have intensively carried out in vivo and in vitro experiment concerning the inhibition effect on the reproduction of DHT (dihydrotestosterone) together with clinical experiment concerning on the hair growth stimulation and seborrheic skin disease. As a result of the investigation, the inventors finally confirm that the extract of hardy kiwi reduced blood DHT level, and inhibited the falling out of hair as well as suppressed the severity of seborrheic skin disease.